Golden Apple [Original Cast]

by Golden Apple / O.C.R.

Overview

John Latouche's and Jerome Moross' The Golden Apple had the distinction of being the first off-Broadway work ever to undergo a planned transfer to the Broadway stage -- there, despite rave reviews, it died a quick death, mostly because of misconceptions about its accessibility. Adapted from The Iliad and The Odyssey -- with the stories transposed to the early-20th century Pacific Northwest -- it was a charming, folksy, tuneful, subtly sophisticated, and brilliantly clever score that could have won over audiences had it lasted long enough to generate positive word of mouth, but that wasn't to be. All that's left, apart from some great reviews, is this cast album, recorded in 1954 and one of the most obscure releases of its kind in the RCA Victor catalog. The re-release is akin to a gift from heaven, and one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful listening experiences of its kind that one can have -- composer Jerome Moross, who later became immortalized as a film composer, here is trading in melodies that seem to parallel pieces such as Lerner & Loewe's "They Call the Wind Maria," and has a few tunes in here that later surface in more thoroughly realized versions as part of the score for The Big Country. This isn't the full score, sad to say -- the producers were obliged to cut both whole numbers and sections of many songs that were included in order to come up with a single LP release, but what is here is a delightful folk opera: unpretentious, playful, and accessible -- and ironically enough, if it were intact, it might be a great way to start teaching Homer today to grade-school students. The digital transfer is clean and sharp, and very crisp (it's not as though the master tape on this album ever had a serious workout), and the annotation is superb. And the vocal contributions, by Priscilla Gillette, Stephen Douglass, Kaye Ballard, Portia Nelson, et al., are priceless. ~ Bruce Eder

Product Details

Release Date:	11/11/1997
Label:	Rca Victor / Rca
UPC:	0090266893423
Rank:	138773

Tracks

1. Overture
2. Narration #1
3. My Love Is on the Way
4. The Heroes Come Home
5. It Was a Glad Adventure
6. Come Along Boys
7. It's the Going Home Together
8. Narration #2
9. Mother Hare's Prophecy
10. Narration #3
11. Helen Is Always Willing
12. Narration #4
13. The Judgment of Paris
14. Narration #5
15. Lazy Afternoon
16. Narration #6
17. The Departure for Rhododendron
18. My Picture in the Papers
19. Narration 7
20. Hector's Song
21. Narration 8
22. Windflowers
23. Narration #9
24. Store-Bought Suit
25. Narration #10: The Big Spree
26. Calypso
27. Scylla and Charybdis
28. Goona-Goona
29. Doomed, Doomed, Doomed
30. Circe
31. Narration #11
32. Ulysses' Soliloquy
33. The Sewing Bee
34. The Tirade
35. Finale: Going Home Together

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Ben Steinberg   Conductor
Hugh Ross   Conductor

Technical Credits

John Latouche   Composer
Bill Rosenfield   Producer
Jack Whiting   Narrator
J. Haskell   Composer
Jerome Moross   Composer
Al Hirschfeld   Cover Art
Christine Chagnon   Art Direction
James Nichols   Remastering